Living Simply

 Einstein said, "I didn't arrive at the understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind." He got there through intuition [attunement with the space]. 

Ram Dass

Ram Dass tells us in the below linked podcast that,

As long as I kept looking for things in time, I kept suffering. 

He reminds us that freedom from suffering is as simple as changing one's mind. We have to see that who we thought we were and our understanding of the world we live is often just a result of our socialization and conditioning.  It isn't reality. We were taught what absolute reality was...but now we need to look at what we were taught, this so called "absolute reality", and see the relativity of it. We need to 

 ....stop moving from one space to another with a set of definitions of who we are 

Who we are isn't who we think we are...We need to start examining what we are is this space that has nothing to do with body or what roles we have taken on; nothing to do with what we have or what we do.  If we look at the wisest and most peaceful people in the world we will see that they live simply: have little, do litle, say little etc.

the source of their satisfaction lies in the nature of their being rather than in the nature of their having or their doing.

The quality of wise people seems to be the simplicity of their life. Instead of the "man over nature" mentally most of us in the west have been conditioned to believe is the way to go...the wise and peaceful go the "man in nature" route. It is all about attuning to what is rather than intellectualizing.  They see themselves not as the "doing" or the "having" but as the "being."

Contemplating this , I need to remind myself that I am not what I sense, have, do, or how I am indentified by self or others. "I am"...simply that...that "I am" that may do something or that may take on a role. I am... and then I teach; I am... and then I write, I am... and then I parent; I am... and then I grandparent; I am... and  then I practice yoga etc. I am... first and foremost. So, it really doesn't matter what I do, what I have, who I am with, where I am living. "I am" first. That doesn't mean, I cannot do, or own, or make choices...but by knowing that "I am" first and foremost, the choices I make will be based on what is better for the "I am", rather than what will serve this "identification " or "idea" I was taught to have of myself and the world. It will mean less struggling and striving. With that realization we can experience  the peace in living simply.

Living simply, however, is not easy for us humans is it?  We don't yet understand the beauty and  perfection of simplicity. We do not yet understand that we are not the roles we have been conditioned to take on. We do not understand that we simply are

an entity that has taken birth and is passing through a series of experiences, all of which are useful to help one awaken to the reality  of Self.

Instead, most of us continue to live stressful lives of striving, struggle, pain and suffering because we identify with our these "little mes" and continue to buy in to society's view of absolute reality:" Have more! Do more!" This creates problem after problem, dissatisfaction after disatisfaction, craving for relief after craving, and crsisis after crisis. We turn away from the beauty simplicity offers to solve this problematic living when all we have to do with each and every "crisis" is bring it down to the simplicity of breath.  To focus on breath rather than it.  That seems too simple, doesn't it?  

Yet, in that breath focus, we can create distance and find the empty space that surrounds us, that will free us from the suffering we are identifying with.

It is the space around experiences that gives one leverage from the pain...that space is just pure awareness. Who we are, is that awareness...a being who is identified with the space [rather than the problematic 'me']. Such a person, doesn't lose their ability to think and act...in fact [it becomes] more optimal...One goes beyond concepts of this or that....beyond polarities...This doesn't mean that one is unable to live with polartities...one gets beyond them.

The above is somewhat paraphrased.

It would benefit us all to live quietly, empty, openly, and spaciously...tobreak this identification with intelliect, senses, social roles, and bodies.Suffering, Dass tells us,  comes from attachment, or identification or clinging  to oour senses, to our thoughts to our models of self, The more we do it, the more we suffer. I want to stop doing it. I want to live simply. What about you?

Ram Dass/ Be Here Now Network ( January 2026) The Delight of Simplicity feat. Daniel Goldman. Episode 296.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRIim72uQ8&t=1s

"simply chopping wood and carrying water"

in yoga along the way as you do all these mediattions and purifications you devlop all thse [ciddhis] and we tend to get lost...seduced by the own powers, of teh own mind...

there is another way of knowing

 I did not arrive 

what brings us home is the when the identification with teh knower rather tahn the known is broken...